Red Buttons
Acting
Although Red Buttons is best known as a stand-up comic, he is also a successful songwriter, an Academy Award-winning actor (and has been nominated for two Golden Globe awards) and an accomplished singer. Born Aaron Chwatt on February 5, 1919 (Aquarius) in New York City's Lower East Side, stood at a height of 5' 6" (1.68 m). Buttons (who got his name from a uniform he wore while working as a singing bellhop), also known as Cpl. Red Buttons, started his show-business career singing on street corners as a child. At 16 he got a job as part of a comedy act playing the famed Catskills resort area in upstate New York (his partner was future actor Robert Alda). Buttons worked the burlesque circuit as a comic and even landed a role in a Broadway play, "Vicki", in 1942. He soon joined the U.S. Marine Corps, and in 1943 was picked for a role in Moss Hart's service play "Winged Victory" on Broadway, and soon afterwards journeyed to Hollywood to make the film version. After his discharge from the service he returned to Broadway, both in plays and as a comic with several big-band orchestras. He was successful enough that he got his own TV series, The Red Buttons Show (1952), on CBS. It lasted three years and won Buttons an Emmy for Best Comedian. He worked steadily for the next several years, and in 1957 got his big film break in the drama Sayonara (1957) with Marlon Brando, in which he played an American soldier stationed in Japan who struggled against the societal and racist pressures of both American and Japanese cultures because of his love for a Japanese woman. His performance garnered him an Academy Award, and more film roles followed. He played a paratrooper in The Longest Day (1962), was nominated for a Golden Globe for Harlow (1965) and again for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). He had a part in the TV series The Double Life of Henry Phyfe (1966) and has done pretty much every kind of TV show there is, from variety to comedy to soap operas. He gained further renown in the 1970s for his appearances on the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" where he performed his "Never Got a Dinner" act to great acclaim. He has played Las Vegas for years, has a star on Hollywood Boulevard (corner of Hollywood and Vine) and has appeared in numerous telethons and charitable events, for which he has been honored by such organizations as the Friars Club and the City of Hope Hospital. He died July 13, 2006 at the age of 87 in Century City, California, USA from vascular disease.
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
as Milton (voice)
Age 60 (now 87)
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
as Self
Age 77 (now 87)
Darryl F. Zanuck: 20th Century Filmmaker
as Self
Age 76 (now 87)
George Burns: His Wit and Wisdom
as Self - Burns Card Play Partner (uncredited)
Age 70 (now 87)
George Burns Celebrates 80 Years in Show Business
as Self
Age 64 (now 87)
Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July
as Milton (voice)
Age 60 (now 87)
The New Original Wonder Woman
as Ashley Norman
Age 56 (now 87)
Who Killed Mary Whats'ername?
as Mickey Isadore
Age 52 (now 87)
A Ticklish Affair
as Flight Officer Simon 'Uncle Cy' Shelley
Age 44 (now 87)
It's Garry Shandling's Show
as Red Buttons
Age 67 (now 87)
Little House on the Prairie
as William 'Willie' O'Hara
Age 55 (now 87)
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts
as Self
Age 54 (now 87)
The Double Life of Henry Phyfe
as Henry Wadsworth Phyfe
Age 46 (now 87)
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
Age 43 (now 87)
General Electric Theater
as Lieutenant George Poole
Age 33 (now 87)
Gathering insights...
Also Known As
Cpl. Red Buttons, Aaron Chwatt
IMDB
nm0000999